Below is an annotated list of children's literature for the elementary classroom. The books are organized by the Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design (Picower, 2007). It is based on work by pre-service teachers at Montclair State University. They have read and reviewed these books and provided insights into how they can be used in K-5 settings.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Families Are Different

Summary: Nico and her older sister are adopted from Korea. One day, Nico is sad because her parents look different from her. She starts noticing that there are other families who do/do not look like one another. Nina Pellegrini(author) illustrated different types of families that we see these days.

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I liked this book because it was not all about adoption. I feel like there are enough(?) books about just adoption. Pellegrini did not a good job of making sure that the story is about importance of family.

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For younger grades (k-2), it would be a great read aloud to study about family. Children could share that family does not always mean mom, dad, sister/brother who all look a like. Because the book does not mention gay parents, it would be a good conversation to bring up after the read aloud.

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I thought of perhaps asking the students if they think it is 'correct' to call 'Parent-Teacher Conference'-- If our school is calling it that, perhaps we gather ideas to change it to be something else. Since the conference is not always between a parent and the teacher.